


crawl inside

by Cap_Sweet_And_Salty_Sadness



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Space, As in he's stuck on a space spation with no memories, BAMF Bucky Barnes, BAMF Tony Stark, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Dead Space AU, Dementia, Engineer Tony Stark, Graphic Description, Hallucinations, Happy Ending, Horror, Loss of Limbs, M/M, Major Character Injury, Memory Loss, Past Character Death, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Tony Stark, Psychological Horror, Self-Sacrificing Tony Stark, Tony Has Issues, Tony Stark-centric, cosmic horror, it's a horror video game AU what do you expect, not a walk in the park, pilot bucky barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 15:41:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19948675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cap_Sweet_And_Salty_Sadness/pseuds/Cap_Sweet_And_Salty_Sadness
Summary: No, not this again, Tony thought, stuck in the monster's grasp that was turning boiling hot even through the layers of clothing. His leg caught in the chair when he tried to back away, and it towered over him, opened its wide mouth…Tony headbutted it as hard as he was stubborn, and the monster went down. He hurried out of the door, dashing to the left and running for his life as necromorphs came out of other cells, from everywhere.“Oh God. Tony!” The same man's voice from the walkie-talkie came out of an intercom. “Tony Stark, if you can hear me, run, run!”--Tony wakes up three years after being part of the rescue team for the USG Icarus, the most notorious planet-cracker classed spaceship, and from which he’s the only survivor. He doesn’t remember what happened during that time, or understand why he’s kept in a straightjacket on the Sprawl, the station on Saturn’s biggest moon. What Tony knows is that the Church of Hydra, responsible for the first necromorph outbreak, is redoing the same thing, and that he’s once again stuck in the middle of it.





	crawl inside

**Author's Note:**

> This was created for the Space Exploration Day challenge on the [Cullrian Discord](https://discord.gg/7Dc9FX). I've been recovering from a leg wound for the past week, and I wrote this faster than I've probably written anything in a long time. It's based on the Dead Space 2 video game, so be mindful of the tags, because this is certainly not a peaceful walk in the park.  
> A huge thank you to my two betas, [Dara3008](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dara3008/pseuds/dara3008) ([Tumblr](https://shippingdara3008.tumblr.com/)) and [thereddame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereddame) ([Tumblr](https://the-red-dame.tumblr.com/))! They made sure the story was understandable even without having played the games and fixed those annoying function words.  
> Also I made a totally ~~un~~ necessary [Spotify Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0sRjCSKGVKivmeXRw4wtK9?si=o6p5Lm9kQ9ynSA-x57H4JA) for the story.

Tony felt warm and safe under his bed covers. He stretched his back with a yawn, the sun shining down on his face. He turned on his side to smile at Pepper, leaning on his arm as he did so. 

"Oh, so sorry, I forgot about the time difference," she giggled, her ginger hair stark on the blue holographic screen. “I can call you back later.”

"It’s okay, I was getting up anyway. How are you doing? How's Icarus?" 

"The Icarus is amazing, Tony. It’s a great ship. I'm so lucky to be serving aboard her." She looked excited, and Tony smiled, happy for her. 

"Enjoy it while it last, Pep, you know they’re gonna decommission it next year."

She nodded, grew serious as a few seconds went by. “Tony… Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For pushing me to do this. You made me stick with it. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have made it this far, but you opened the door for me.”

Tony shrugged. “Well, I’m giving you up for six months so you can do this.”

He frowned. No, this wasn't right. This already had happened… hadn't it? 

"Pepper?" 

He blinked. He wasn't in bed. He’d never been in bed. He was on an uncomfortable chair, his ass and head numb. A man was showing him the video, talking to him. Tony tried to focus, but reality was hazy, difficult to grasp, his brain wrapped in cotton. The man was saying something, something about his dead girlfriend. 

“Pepper Potts. She was a senior medical officer stationed aboard a planet-cracker classed vessel.”

“Icarus,” Tony said, the inside of his mouth pasty.

“The USG Icarus,” the man continued. “Part of a mining operation on Aegis VII. I understand communication went down shortly after their arrival. You were part of the repair mission. A mission for which you volunteered, am I right? What did you find aboard that ship, Tony?”

Memories flashed before his eyes. The USG Icarus, the planet-cracker flagship of the Stark Extraction Industries, turned into a wreck littered with necromorphs, humans resurrected into monsters by a man-made relic kept on Aegis VII. It’d already been lost when his team and himself had stepped in it. 

How he fought to keep Pepper and himself alive, only to realize she'd been dead this whole time, the Marker giving him an hallucination of what he wanted to see. She was dead. 

Aegis VII’s access had been forbidden for centuries for a reason, and it should’ve stayed prohibited. 

“I found something.”

“What did they find aboard the ship, Tony?”

“The Marker.” Tony could see it, the giant double helical relic, littered with pictograms and pulsing blood red like a heart. A nerve spasmed in his neck, and he jerked in his straightjacket, gasping. Pepper was here, approaching him from the other side of the table where the man was still interrogating him. 

“Did you have contact with this Marker?” The man kept asking as she crawled on the surface, covered with blood. Her once beautiful hair was dripping with it. “It made you see things, didn’t it? Things you didn’t want to see.”

“It spoke to me.” She grinned and her head lit up from the inside, turned it into a terrific beaming husk. White noise filled Tony’s ears as he could only stare at her horrific image leaning towards him.

“What did it say, Tony? What did it say to you?”

"Tony, Tony, can you hear me?" He was shaken, and the light was coming from a flashlight put directly in front of his eyes. He turned his head to evade it, grimacing. There was no man interrogating him, no Pepper and no table, only a grim, dirty dark cell.

Donald Blake snapped his fingers in front of his face. He was a doctor, a nice one, was always gentle with Tony.

“Donald?” Tony weakly said, nauseous. He cleared his throat, grateful when Donald finally turned off the flashlight. His swiped his tongue along his teeth, trying to remember what day it was, or how long he’d been trapped in this cell. He didn’t know.

“Ezekiel, I found Tony Stark. Repeat, I have him,” Donald talked into the walkie-talkie strapped to his shoulder.

“Great work, Blake. Be careful, he’s been out for a long time.”

Donald helped him up on his feet, and that was when Tony realized the straightjacket was real. He fell into Donald’s chest who steadied him, his hands on his shoulders.

“Where… Where am I?” He asked, looking behind Donald, outside his opened cell. What had happened here? The place was in total disarray, lights flickering.

“I know you’re confused right now, and I can explain everything, but you’ve gotta trust me, okay? Tony, you’re in terrible, terrible danger — ” 

A long, pink appadenge suddenly pierced through his chest, inches from Tony’s face. Blood splattered on his cheek and mouth. A nightmarish creature pounded on Donald’s back and stabbed him again on the forehead, before disappearing just as fast. Donald’s eyes rolled in their sockets as he started choking and gasping this wet, inhuman noise, smoke oozing out of his wounds. Worm-like tendrils erupted from his forehead and his back opened to let out new appadenges. The transformation was violent and fast, a matter of seconds. He was turning into a necromorph.

_ No, not this again, _ Tony thought, stuck in its grasp that was turning boiling hot even through the layers of clothing. His leg caught in the chair when he tried to back away, and the monster towered over him, opened its wide mouth…

Tony headbutted it as hard as he was stubborn, and the monster went down. He hurried out of the door, dashing to the left and running for his life as necromorphs came out of other cells, from everywhere. 

“Oh God. Tony!” The same man's voice from the walkie-talkie came out of an intercom. “Tony Stark, if you can hear me, run, run!”

As if he needed to be told. He almost tripped into one as he ran towards the nearest door, not having the best balance with the straightjacket and his fuzzy mind. He didn’t feel like this was reality, not when he thought he’d dealt with those hideous creatures once and for all. They were roaring and screaming all around him, through the blood roaring in his ears, and he’d barely made it through a door leading to an ominous “Secure Area” when something jumped on him from behind, and he hit the floor chin first. 

He didn’t bite his tongue, but he felt the impact up to his skull. He managed to roll on his back and screamed when the necromorph dug the natural blade of its elongated appadenge into his arm, its mandible snapping open. It only had one arm left, so before it could strike again, Tony pushed it away just as the automatic doors closed, severing it in two. 

He breathed hard, his lungs not able to expand properly in the restrictive jacket, and he stared hard at the door. It remained closed. 

His wound throbbing, but unable to do anything about it right now, he slowly made his way along the short corridor, giving a glance at the sad state of another destroyed, bloodied cell. He saw two armed men, but they were killed by necromorphs before he could interact with them. 

Where was he?

His wandering led him to a still operating administrative room of some sort, where a video about a patient was playing. Justin Hammer. He looked around for anything sharp he could use to cut himself free, but the desks had nothing but screens on them. For fuck’s sake. 

On the video, Hammer was being asked about his eye.

“Still hurts,” he replied, his complexion waxy.

“I’ll schedule you for another session tomorrow,” the other, faceless man said, turning around him. Hammer seemed dizzy with the movement. 

He shook his head. “No, I’m… I’m not sure I’m ready…”

“Of course you are.”

What kind of session were they talking about? Something unpleasant, whatever it was. Tony understood he was in a psychiatrist hospital, and that a Marker was present somewhere, for it was the only thing creating necromorphs. Had Tony been awake or simply aware of his surroundings, he would’ve told them how bad of an idea this was.

He found the man who had interviewed him in the next room, mumbling and laughing to himself, blood colouring his white uniform. Clearly he wasn’t completely himself. Tony attempted to pass by him unnoticed, without success. Not only was he seen, but the man had a scalpel in his hand that he put against Tony’s throat, too fast for him to dodge.

“Come on, man,” he weakly protested.

“Oh, I know you,” the other said, laughing. “We had to terminate it.” Tony couldn’t understand everything he was saying, so he tried calming him down.

“Listen to me, we can both get out of here. Just cut me out of the straightjacket.”

“No one’s getting out of here alive,” he whispered and aimed the scalpel over his stomach. 

“Don’t do it,” Tony started, but then his hands were freed, and he jerked away, finally putting some pressure on his arm wound. 

“There’s no escaping from what I’ve done,” the man chuckled, grinning, slightly demented. 

“Take it easy, buddy,” Tony said, unsure of the man’s intentions. So far he’d seen nothing but violence, and he still had a blade in his hand.

“Your RIG is red,” the other simply said, referring to the health indicator mounted to his spine. “Check in that wall locker. Grab what’s it in. I won’t be needing it anymore.”

Tony kept an eye on him while he sidestepped towards the locker. He found a small med pack inside which he instantly used, letting out a breath as it spread through him. He also grabbed the flashlight inside. He turned back to the man.

“Tony. We’re all gonna burn for what we did to you.”

“To me? What — Hey, stop!”

But too late. The man deeply slit his own throat, the blood gushing down his jacket in thick rivulets. He slid down the window, gurgling, until he stopped moving. Tony didn’t wait to see if he would reanimate and hurried out of the room and into an elevator. He didn’t know where out was, but he would find it.

The holographic projector on his wrist lit up as a somewhat familiar face appeared in front of him.

“Tony Stark! Is that you?”

Tony frowned. Where had he seen this man? “Who are you?”

“Of course you wouldn’t recognize me, I was quite young three years ago.”

It took him a moment to remember, but the man had some resemblance to his father, his boss. “You’re Ezekiel Stane, Obadiah’s son.”

“Yes. I’m the one trying to rescue you.”

“Why, what’s going on?”

“You’re suffering from a unique form of dementia, Tony, something you’ve contracted on Aegis VII.” The hallucinations, the white noise, the depersonalizations… All these symptoms had been caused by the Marker.

“How do you know that?” Tony spat. “How do you know all of this?”

“Your dementia will kill you,” Ezekiel continued, avoided the answer, “but if you can get here, I can treat you and put you to safety.”

As if Tony believed he could be helped by a Stane, after what Obadiah had put him through… But what choice did he have? 

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because I’m not the one shooting at you.” Not yet, at least.

“Fuck,” he trailed, running a hand along his buzzed hair. At least they kept him with facial hair.

“Follow the coordinates I’m sending you.”

The call ended, and he sighed. He only had a flashlight to defend himself against the necromorphs, so he had to be careful until he found something more useful.

He carefully stepped into a dark area, fluorescent lights turning on and off. A large monitor turning to life startled him, and he almost dropped his flashlight, but he tightened his grip on it and continued, feeling uneasy. He felt dizzy, still slightly nauseous, and he wondered when was the last time he either drank or ate anything.

He had to step through vents pullulated by a noisy necromorph right in front of him. Luckily it moved away, but he fell through a damaged spot of the thin metal before he could reach the other exit. He hit the floor below painfully, but the throb barely registered as he was met with a person levitating in stasis. Exactly what he needed to get out of here.

“Tony, are you alright?” Ezekiel asked him, his hologram popping up.

“Why are you helping me?”

“If the Security Force finds you, more people will die.”

“Including you and me.”

“Not if you follow my route.”

“I don’t like this.”

Ezekiel stomped like a child, exasperated. “You don’t have to like it. Just hurry before you get locked in.”

Tony approached the control panel of the device and removed it. He quickly found the stasis module and pulled it out, the person immediately dropping down on the metal bed as he did so and breaking it. Why had he been put in telekinetic stasis to begin with, if they were dead? No matter. He installed the module to his RIG suit, and of course it brought in the attention of some necromorphs.

“Great,” he muttered, looking around for a makeshift weapon. Small metal poles from the bed would do. He waited for one of those monsters to approach close enough to levitate and throw a pole straight at one of its limbs, severing it. It fell back. He had to do it a few times for the monsters to stay down, then he finished them off with a well-placed foot stomp.

Once he killed them all, he hurried out of the room, already hearing more behind him, but the same technique took care of them. He followed Ezekiel’s route through the facility, coming across an experiment lab. A still alive person was strapped to a table, calling for help, and Tony didn’t think twice before running in the room.

“Where did everyone go?” The strapped man was screaming, pulling at his restraints. Three blue lights were pointing down his chest. “Help me, please.”

“Calm down, I’ll help you,” Tony reassured him with his most reassuring voice, stepping in front of the computer.  _ Surgical Tissue Incision In Progress _ . What sort of experiment had they been doing on him? Whatever it was, the keyboard wasn’t responding. “Is that a tissue laser, a plasma cutter?”

A necromorph appeared, growling before the man could reply, and Tony hurried, but he was too slow. By the time he deactivated the machine and retrieved the plasma cutter, the monster had cut the screaming man into shreds. Tony aimed the weapon and shot it twice in the legs, killing it. 

He was familiar with this weapon, had practice dismembering the creatures back on the Icarus. He couldn’t say he’d missed it. 

He made his way through the Intensive Care Waiting Area, which was on fire when he arrived. He was an engineer, not a soldier, and yet here he was, dealing with those monsters in the dark. Everywhere he went, it was more gore and blood and destruction. 

A security lockdown started in the Emergency area, just his luck, and he came across the same man than he’d seen on the video before. Justin Hammer. He was gesturing at him to follow him, running down a corridor decorated with blood that Tony almost slipped on. He wasn’t fast enough for the lockdown, the gate closing between them.

“I’m patient Five, remember me?” Hammer said right before it closed. It didn’t ring any bell to Tony. His memories were so blurry, and it was hard to focus with the blaring alarm.

Angry, he called Ezekiel. “Your fucking route didn’t work. There’s an emergency lockdown.”

“I told you to hurry!”

How could he hurry when necromorphs appeared at every corner, and this place was built in fucking corners. “You know what, I don’t need your help.”

“Fine, let’s see how long you last.”

He took care of the monsters, explored the area afterwards to replenish his ammunition. There was a Wanted poster in the office, of him and Hammer.  _ Fugitives from Earthgov, Considered delusional, dangerous, Do not approach. _ It wasn’t the first time Tony was called delusional, but it was the first time he didn't know why.

He sighed, opened a call again. “Ezekiel, you’re right. I do need your help.”

“Tony, I’m not your enemy, time is. I found you a new route.”

“Fine. So where the hell am I? How did a new necromorph outbreak get started?”

“You’re on the Sprawl, a station on Titan, the biggest of Saturn’s moons.” Interferences jammed their signal, and he didn’t hear what he next said, the communication lost. Well, at least he had a new route. Following it was perilous and filled with many monsters, and Tony grew insensitive to it all, pushing himself to go through. The facility was also playing against him, once almost sending him into space if it hadn’t been for his quick thinking. 

He did it once, he could do it again. He only wished he understood why.

The first time, he thought it was to save the Icarus and Pepper, but the ship had been lost from the start. If only he hadn’t convinced her to go, if only he hadn’t wanted her away from him and his shame as Obadiah cut him from his own company. He let him remain an engineer in Stark Extraction Industries only because of Tony’s skills and nothing else, his name as Stark meant nothing anymore. Well, Howard had better rolled in his grave, knowing what his dear best friend had done with the company.

He stumbled on a store by pure luck in a storage room, in which he could purchase weapons and new gear. He changed into his Elite Engineering Suit, one of the last vestiges of his father’s money, before he’d been disowned. The suit provided him with more space to stash ammo and med packs, as well as more protection against the necromorphs. It also worked in synchronicity with his personal RIG and was equipped with the necessary gear to survive in a space station, like heavy armour plating to protect against occupational hazards, thrusters on his boots and arms and an oxygen tank for zero gravity areas. It would come in handy, he was sure of it. 

He also got himself a pulse rifle that fired faster than his plasma cutter and would be useful with enemy groups, and he upgraded his mag size so he wouldn’t have to reload it every other second. With the state of this place, he’d need it. He strapped both weapons to his sides.

He felt more confident with the better equipment, the faceplate of his helmet sliding down, sealing him off from the world. He hated everything about being in this damned hospital in the middle of nowhere, but at least he had guns and protection. 

“I’m out of the hospital,” he called Ezekiel afterwards, once he dealt with the nasty monster coming out of a destroyed vehicle.

“Okay, the train station is just beyond the apartment block.”

“Hold on, I need more answers. How long have I been here?”

Ezekiel sighed. “Three years. Ross found you floating in space near Aegis VII and brought you here for study.”

“Why can’t I remember anything?”

“The Marker you found impregnated your brain with self-replicating signal. The longer you’re awake, the more the signal spreads. It’s killing you, Tony. Ross has tried to keep it in check with memory suppressants.”

“You said you could fix it, right?”

“Only if you reach me in time. Train station, get moving.”

Easier said than done. The station was filled with those things, nothing surprising at this point. The worst were the hallucinations of Pepper, lingering more and more as time passed by. She looked at him with reproach in her eyes, blaming him for her death. He forced her out. He met a new kind of necromorphs in the train, one of its arms glowing and exploding when he shot it. It almost blasted him out at one point, but he slowed it with his stasis and kicked the limb out of range.

The train was broken in half, and the only way out was to fly to another disconnected wagon at the front. He succeeded to reach it, but something huge derailed it and the back of it went up, destroying the rail and falling through the warehouse underneath. He started sliding down the rest of the way, scrambling to hold on to something. He managed to wrap his leg around a loose cable and fell upside down, stopped a few meters from the floor. He gasped at the pain and looked around. This was nowhere near what the route indicated to go. 

Necromorphs were coming his way, attracted by the noise. He used the metal poles on the floor as projectiles, trying to save his ammo, until he found out what had derailed the train. It was a huge monster, limbs twice as big as its body. Tony shot at its glowing ligaments until they gave way, as well as the wagon that had been precariously balanced at the edge of the tunnel until now, and under which Tony still hung.

“Fuck!” Tony yelled, landing hard on the floor. He hurried to his feet, running away from the wagon before it exploded. The impact sent him flying away, but at least the suit cushioned his second fall. It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

“Ugh, how many times is this going to happen?” He mumbled, shaking his head clear. He scavenged the warehouse for ammo and med packs, then asked for a new route. Ezekiel grumbled but sent him another way through an apartment building. He was almost out of here when he noticed one of Ross’ ships had spotted him. Great. 

What was even greater was when he stepped into the Sprawl’s church of Hydra. They were here too? Tony had encountered them on Aegis VII, they were responsible for the destruction of the USG Icarus for wanting to retrieve the Marker and use it in their quest for immortality. It seemed they’d tried the same thing here, on Titan. They couldn’t let it go, could they?

He hated being here, it reminded him all too well what happened last time he’d been in a Church of Hydra.  _ Stick a needle in your eye _ , they said,  _ save yourself _ . Yeah, right. He thought he’d been fighting with Pepper, when he’d been fighting against himself, in complete psychosis. He hoped the cure would work.

He eventually made his way to the roof of the Church, where Ezekiel was waiting for him. The office gave a view on the rest of Titan, and he stopped a moment to admire it. The station was big and looked deserted. Tony sighed, but couldn’t allow himself to be discouraged right now.

Just as he thought that, he was grabbed by two guards in the next room, Ezekiel smirking at him. The Hydra logo incrusted in his uniform glared at him.

“Ezekiel! You’re Hydra… Of course you are. Why did I trust you?”

“Well you didn’t have a choice, Tony. I told you there was a cure and you came running.”

“Why are you doing this? Why can’t you leave me alone?”

“You’re a danger, Tony. EarthGov won’t leave you alone because they’re afraid you’re going to destroy their Marker. After all, you did build it.”

Wait, what? “What are you talking about?”

“Well, that’s why we brought you here. To build Markers for us, to spread glorious conversion to the entire galaxy.”

“You people are unbelievable,” Tony screamed, struggled to free himself, in vain. “Just give me the fucking cure and let me go.”

“Oh, we don’t want to cure you, Tony. We need that precious head of yours just the way it is. Now, would you escort Tony to the shuttle and put him in stasis? The last thing we need is for him to die.”

An explosion shook the building, destroyed the windows. The same Security Force spaceship from before appeared, guns blazing, while the space vacuum the breach caused started pulling everything and everyone outside. The ship fired on Ezekiel and one of the guards, and Tony pulled down his helmet for oxygen, viciously kicking the other guard who wouldn’t let go of him. He held onto the floor panels and found a trap door, quickly slipping inside and down a vent as the guns were still shooting at him.

He landed and came face to face with a huge creature. Oh, fuck. Tony started running away, but the thing grabbed him with one of its tentacles and smashed him against the walls, not letting go until he emptied a magazine into it. He ran down the long corridor to an empty room with windows, the necromorph right behind him. Before him, a Security Force ship slid down, guns warming up.

This wasn’t a good idea, he thought, before it opened fire and the necromorph busted the doors open. He was projected into space, directly against the spaceship. He held onto it, grunted when the creature followed him and caught him in its grasp once again. Nausea rose up as he was shaken like a doll in space. 

The ship was damaged by the necromorph at least, and the hull split open, gas canisters floating in between the monster and him. Well, this would hurt. He fired at them. The explosion threw him back into the Church of Hydra, and he slid through a dusty hall. He deactivated his suit’s oxygen once the area was sealed, coughing and gasping. Maybe he’d grown used to being thrown around at some point, but for the moment, it hurt like a motherfucker. 

His bracelet beeped and holographic projector opened a call.

“Tony, Tony, are you there?” Hammer ran towards the camera until only his crazy eyes were visible.

“What do you want, Hammer? All my plans just blew out the window, I don’t have time for this.”

“No no no, it’s not over, at least not yet. Tony, we built it, we can tear it down.”

Tony frowned, dread twisting his insides in a knot. “You mean, the Marker? Do you know where the Marker is?”

“The Government Sector, but we need to move now now now — ” 

The communication cut off, came back when Tony was stepping in the elevator.

“They were afraid of us. I remember, they did sessions with us to know the steps.”

“I don’t remember any session.”

“You’re lucky. When you do, He comes back.”

“Who, Hammer? Who comes back?”

Tony assumed Hammer referred to his own hallucinations, as he started mumbling and disappeared off screen. His dementia was more advanced than Tony’s, as he remembered more, and he feared he wouldn’t be able to get all the answers from him. 

He had to use the public transport again to go into the Government Sector. He easily dealt with the power problem and reassured Hammer who was definitely losing his mind, talking about someone waiting for him in a dark machine. Tony told him to join him at the train station, but he didn’t know if Hammer heard him.

Tony was surrounded by lunatics and fanatics, he reckoned as he stepped into the station, paying attention to his surroundings. He heard something, but he wasn’t sure if it was from a human or not. He stopped for a second, straining his ears, and sure enough, there was a man yelling a bit further, followed by gunshots.

“Come on, you piece of shit!” the man fired at the swarm of necromorphs escalating the bridge, a security fence protecting him from the rest of the station. Tony helped him, and together they quickly thinned out their numbers. What he wasn’t expecting was the shot fired right beside him, and Tony raised his hands in the air.

“Hey!” He protested, raising his faceplate to show he meant no harm. He couldn’t see the man from this distance, but he definitely saw the laser cutter’s lights trained on his chest.

“Stay back. You wanna talk, you talk from there.”

A holographic call appeared and it was the man facing him, dirty brown hair cropped at his jaw and a scruff enhancing his sharp jawline, the grime and dirt on his face making his guarded, ice blue eyes more piercing. He was the most beautiful person Tony had seen in this sorry place, and frankly, in he couldn’t remember how long.

“Don’t say you’re here to help. The last person who did tried to kill me.”

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Yeah, you got that right. You try it, and you’re dead.”

The call ended, and he approached the metal fence guarding him from the elevator and the man. 

“Look, I think we got off the wrong foot. I’m Tony,” he said, watching the man twist things around in the doors’ access panel. He glanced at Tony over his shoulder.

“Bucky,” he grunted. “What do you want, Tony?”

“I’m trying to get to the transport hub. I need to go to the Government Sector.”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Bucky muttered, turning his attention back to the cables.

“I can help you,” Tony said, watching him finally open the doors. “Besides, we’ve got a better chance if we stick together.”

“No way, Tony. I’m sorry, other people are just a liability. I’ll release the lockdown, but please, don’t follow me.” The doors closed on his determined expression. Just like he said, he opened the metal fence, but when Tony looked for him beyond, he was nowhere to be seen. Fine. 

Tony didn’t need him or his gorgeous face. He’d made it this far on his own. He didn’t need his help. Nope.

He had to go through the elementary school, killing baby monsters on his way and giving him more fuel for nightmares later. His hallucinations were getting worse too, he kept seeing Pepper everywhere. 

He was leaving the school when he got a call from Bucky. He was pointing his gun at Hammer, his stance defensive.

“I found someone, another survivor. He says he knows you.” He looked at Hammer. “Stand still.”

“I do. His name is Justin Hammer. I know him.”

“He looks twitchy, I don’t trust him.” But Bucky had called him. It meant he liked Tony enough to let him know about Hammer, if anything.

“Bucky, I need Hammer alive. I need him.”

Bucky pursed his lips, unhappy about it, but lowered his weapon. “Shit. Okay, we’ll be at the hub ahead of you. If he does anything stupid, I will shoot him.”

Tony found them where Bucky told him they’d be, in the lobby of the transport hub right outside the school. There was a poster for a movie titled  _ Kitty Kitty Bang Bang?  _ Tony couldn’t say he was sorry he couldn’t remember that one. 

Bucky kept a vigilant eye on Hammer, tense, and nodded as Tony approached. “Fancy meeting you again.”

“And I, you.” Tony attempted a small smile, and he was rewarded with Bucky’s face softening with pleased surprise. He was even prettier from up close, his white tank top showing off his muscular arms and chest, a bandage on his left biceps.

“Hi Tony,” Hammer grinned, fidgety and looking around in awe. 

“Well, this brings up bad memories. I barely managed to escape the SEI facility this morning.”

Tony frowned. “Wait, you’re SEI?” Stark Extraction Industries, the branch of SI in charge of deep space mining and leader in the domain. If another SEI employee had survived, it meant more chance of getting out of here alive.

“Heavy Equipment Pilot, Class IV. You?”

“Engineer.” No need to get into details about why his family name was plastered on there and he wasn’t the CEO of it. 

“Nerd. Figures.” Bucky chuckled, his face lighting up and oh, that was bad for Tony. 

Then the power cut off.

“Oh no, it’s dark. They’ll find us in the dark,” Hammer whined, twisting his fingers together.

“Calm down, it’s just a power outage,” Bucky reassured him, inspecting their surroundings for any threat. “I think life support’s out too.”

Tony received a call. He recognized a man by the propaganda posters he’d seen littering the whole station.

“Our two remaining runners, Stark and Hammer,” Thaddeus Ross said, matter-of-factly. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you reached the transit hub. You’ll find the train inoperable.”

“Are you insane, you cut off the power to life support, there might be other survivors over here.”

“Public sector is already beyond acceptable recovery conditions. I cannot allow you to escape. Goodbye, Stark.”

“Fuck, Tony, look out!” Bucky warned him just as a giant necromorph landed from the platform of the upper floor. Together, they shot off its appendages, then stomped it dead once and for all.

“We make a good team,” Tony said afterwards, panting. He stretched his back through the suit, wincing as everything throbbed. He wasn’t so young anymore, three years into the future.

“I think that’s all of them. What did you do to piss off Ross so much?”

Tony started looting the room for equipment, sharing magazines with Bucky for his plasma cutter. “You know what a Marker is?”

“Yeah, the Hydra cultists in my crew wouldn’t shut up about it. Why, is it real?”

“Yeah, it’s real. Ross had made one using codes, patterns from our brains, mine and Hammer’s. Everything that’s been happening on this station has been happening because of that Marker. I have to get to it and destroy it, and I need Hammer to tell me how.”

Bucky remained silent for a moment, processing, but he seemed to believe him. A story like that couldn’t be made up. “You’re a strange man, that’s for sure.”

“Will you help me?”

Bucky shrugged. “We’re about to suffocate, so yeah.”

Tony’s shoulders eased up a bit, a plan already forming in his head. “Alright, good. We need power. Without it, we won’t have oxygen and no train. The Sprawl has to have spare batteries somewhere.”

“The Solar Array, up there. It hasn’t been used since they built the fusion reactors to upgrade the power source.”

“Alright then, I’ll head up there. If I can start it up, I can get some power into the train.”

“You’ll need someone to open the correct panels. I can do that.”

Tony nodded. “Take Hammer and keep him safe. You take care of yourself, too, okay? Wouldn’t want you to become a necromorph.”

“You and me both, buddy,” Bucky breathed out. After a beat, he stepped away. “Well, keep me posted.”

“Will do.” Tony watched the duo disappear through a door, before he started the journey towards the Solar Array. With the power down, the whole station was malfunctioning, and he ran into a few snags, but he managed his way up the array. The mirrors were out of alignment, he quickly realised when he looked over the control panel. He also noticed a Rocket chair at the back, normally used for transportation, which was odd for Tony to find so far away from the station with nowhere to land. 

He went out into space to realign the mirrors. Hammer’s state was deteriorating, and fast. 

“He stopped hyperventilating, at least,” Bucky was telling him on the comms. “I knew he would slow me down.”

“Bucky, if he dies, so does our chance to get out of here alive.”

“Fine. Oh, this thing is heavy. Hammer, give me a hand with this.”

“I’m not strong enough,” Hammer mumbled. 

“I promise I’ll protect you, just come over here and give me a hand… Something’s covering the panel. Oh my God, there’s thousands of them!”

“Bucky, Bucky, run away,” Tony told him, feeling useless so far away from them.

“Run, Hammer, run!”

Static. “Bucky, come in! Fuck.”

He didn’t know what he would do if they died. He focused on finishing up here, realigning the last mirror, and watched the beam appear. 

Power started again. 

He was flying back inside the array when a holographic projector appeared, Bucky looking worse for wear but alive.

“Shit, Tony.”

“Bucky, you’re alright?”

“We had just crossed over when the beam hit. Those things are still heading towards the transport hub, they’re wrecking everything in their path.”

“Fuck. Get to the hub, I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”

Bucky nodded, then frowned. “We have to cross to the Government Sector before they cut us off, you’ll never make it down here in time.”

Tony stepped inside the array. “I’ll be there, trust me.”

He installed himself in the Rocket chair, breathing deeply as it activated. He was propelled into space, the chair giving him a jump start down towards the Sprawl. He evaded the numerous debris and landed through a wall right beside the Transport Hub outside the SEI Facility.

“Bucky, where are you?” He called out, before he almost ran into him, Hammer not far behind. Bucky steadied him with a hand on his chestplate. Blood was running down his neck, made soaked hair strands stick to his sweaty skin, but he looked fine.

“You made it, good. Come on, these little children monsters are everywhere.” 

Tony took care of said monsters while Bucky worked on opening the SEI door. “Piece of shit door. I’m entering my code but it’s not working.”

“Can you work faster, maybe?”

“I’m doing my best. Alright, you bastard.” Bucky had to bust the panel control open and pull on some cables, but the door finally opened.

They made their way inside the facility, sealing the monsters out, for the moment. Tony lifted his faceplate, the little bit of wind feeling amazing on his sweaty face.

“Shit, Tony,” Bucky groaned, wiping his face with his forearm, not doing a great job of cleaning himself up. “I was right here this morning with a crew of thirty people. We were overrun, and before I knew it, they transformed. I had to cut arms and legs off my friends just to escape. There’s probably pieces of them still laying around…”

“I know, Bucky, I’m sorry.”

“And here I am again. I just ran in a big fucking circle today.”

“Listen,” Tony began, tentatively putting his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “Three years ago, a necromorph outbreak happened on Aegis VII. Have you heard of it?” At Bucky’s nod, he continued. “I was part of the rescue team. I’ve dealt with an outbreak before, and yet, here I am again, dealing with another one only because some Hydra zealots think the Markers will make the galaxy better or some fucking bullshit.”

Bucky stared at him, somewhat calmer. He squeezed his hand on his shoulder, and Tony felt it through the hard fabric.

“Right. There’s a central hub in the main facility. We should… head there.”

They turned to Hammer, who was prostrated in a corner, muttering to himself.

“There are four steps. One two three four. Step one, shoot me.”

“You okay, Hammer?”

“It’s getting worse.” Bucky leaned down, peering up at Hammer’s eyes. The man was completely out of it.

“What’s step four?” Tony asked. “Who will be waiting?”

“He’ll show me the way.”

“He’s not gonna make it, we should go.”

Bucky scratched his left arm, under his wound. “There’s an industrial transport upstairs that communicate with the train, it should get us to the Government Sector. One of us will have to deploy it.”

Tony knew what he meant by that. “Are you sure you’ll be okay with him?”

They both looked at Hammer, then at each other. “We’ll be okay. See you on the other side.”

The SEI Facility was haunted by all kinds of necromorphs, all hollering at him and more disgusting than the others. Tony stopped counting how many magazines he used to cut limbs and secure his way up. The back of his head was starting to hurt very badly, like little fists pounding against his skull from the inside. Pepper was being persistent, whispering to him threats with every step closer to destroying the Marker.

_ Do you even remember me? What you did to me?  _ She told him at one point, right before Bucky and Hammer joined him on the industrial lift.

“You’re not real.”

_ Did you think I would forgive you? _

“Get out of my head,” he hissed at her glowing eyes, and she puffed away, replaced by Bucky striding inside, then stopping when he noticed his distress.

“Hey, you okay?” He asked him, pressing the back of his hand against his forehead to check his temperature. It felt nice. Tony grabbed it before he could escape and pressed his palm against his cheek, reassured by the human contact. 

“Yeah. It's been a long day."

Bucky hummed in understanding, his thumb softly swiping under his eye.

“We’re almost there,” he assured him. He let go to activate the lift. It started its descent.

“He’s staring at me, Tony, he’s staring. Stop staring!” Hammer gesticulated at an empty spot, angry, and Tony sighed. Why did he think it was a good idea to bring him?

“Go sit down, Hammer…” He forgot Hammer’s strange behaviour when he looked outside and faced a ship he thought had been destroyed. “Oh my god, that’s the Icarus!” The ship was docked, looking way better than the last time Tony had seen it. What was it doing here?

“Yeah, I heard everybody on it died. Some sort of terrorist attack.”

“A terrorist attack? Bucky, everything that’s happening here has started on the Icarus. It was stationed on Aegis VII when we went to rescue it three years ago.”

The lift brusquely halted, sending Tony against Bucky who caught him with a grunt. Tony had his face pressed into his neck for a moment, and if he remained there a second longer than necessary, no one needed to know.

“What now?” He mumbled, sliding back on his helmet. 

“Something’s blocking the track.”

“Stay here, I’ll take a look.”

Every time they had a plan, something complicated it. A group of Stalkers, a specialized kind of necromorphs with sharp claws and a liking for flanking him, started playing hide and seek with him in the warehouse he went to investigate. He used his stasis to slow them down before they could jump on him, pulling them apart with his rifle. They showed signs of intelligence by regrouping and keeping up with a strategy, that was scary. Good thing Tony was smarter.

There was more and more of the necromorphs too, it took him a few minutes to clear the hall to have access to the Fuel Mega Storage, where the source of their problem laid. Giant tentacles had wrapped tightly over the track. Pressed against it was a tank of some sort, filled with Nitrogen Trichloride that could explode if overheated, thanks to Bucky’s knowledge. Blowing it up was easy, and actually stress-relieving. One of the two tentacles let go, and he made his way down to take care of the second one.

“Okay, Bucky, get ready, there’s one more.”

“Woh, are you crazy? If you set that one up, it’ll incinerate everything in here.”

“Oh, that’s true. Well, hang on tight.”

He just had started throwing canisters on the tank when a large necromorph landed down on the platform with him. One of those monsters made of multiple bodies fused together and with three legs. Tony rolled out of the way just in time, getting back on his feet and killing it before another one appeared. Sweat was falling in his eyes by the time the tank finally exploded, and he ran back to the transport with fire at his heels. 

He dropped on his knees when he reached it, Bucky already propulsing the lift as fast as it could go. 

Somehow, they made it out, and Tony started breathing better. 

Of course things couldn’t be this easy.

Ross’ ugly mutt appeared over the dashboard. “Another situation where I have to admire your persistence, Stark, but this is bigger than you or anyone on this station. It needs to end here. At this point, you’re just dead weight.” The projector disappeared just as quickly.

“Wait, what did he mean when he said dead weight?” Bucky said in alarm.

“I — ” 

The Solar Array’s beam appeared, coming down on the tracks and severing the Government Sector from the rest of the Sprawl.

Bucky banged his fist down on the dashboard. “Shit, there’s no way to cross over now.”

Tony looked around them, and he noticed they were beside the Icarus. “Bucky, bring us back, back to the station. If the Icarus’ gravity tethers are still functional, I can — ”

“You can snare Gov Sec and drag it back? Tony, that’s ridiculous.”

“If I can line up the tracks for a few seconds you should be able to get the Transport across,” Tony continued, ignoring his protest. This wasn’t the craziest idea he’d ever had. “Stay ready, and take care of Hammer.”

“Of course I’m back to being the babysitter.” Bucky stomped to him. “Tony, that’s a really bad idea, and you know it. You might not make it alive.”

“What other choice do we have, then?” Tony got in his face, suddenly angry too. “Wait here for our death? I’ve been full of bad ideas so far, and look where we are. We’re so close to our goal, Bucky.”

Oh, he got it now. Bucky was scared he wouldn’t come back, and he’d be stuck here.

“I’ll come back for you, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried about that. I hate staying safe here while you’re doing all the work.”

“Hey, you think what you’re doing isn’t important? You’re making sure our mean of escape remains secure and functional.”

Bucky breathed through his nose, clearly not convinced. Tony knew the Icarus, he would be in and out in no time. He preferred him being frustrated and safe than following him without protection. Beside, Tony didn’t want to confess that Bucky was already doing a lot for him by being here, for him to come back to someone tangible and real - and fierce and kind.

“Here, take this.” He gave him a large med pack. Better safe than sorry. “Just in case any more necromorphs decide to visit while I’m gone.” 

“Alright. If you find anything edible, bring it back too. I get hungry when I’m bored.”

Tony nodded, gave him one last look, and was out of the door. 

“Be good, Hammer.”

Despite his little speech, he felt nervous going back into the Icarus. Detecting his fear, the voices inside his head grew stronger as he approached, confusing him. He’d forgotten how big the ship was from up close. 

Inside was… not pretty. A team had started cleaning the place up, but it looked like they’d left in a hurry halfway through. Things were badly patched up, abandoned. He found a diagnostic report, and he sighed in frustration as he read it.

“The gravity centrifuge is under repair,” he told Bucky through the comms. “I’ll have to go down to engineering.”

“Is it safe?”

Tony let out a bitter chuckle. “Probably not. I’ll keep you updated.”

The flickering lights, the dark corners, he was seeing Pepper everywhere, her image juxtaposing to reality, her voice murmuring to him behind him like a poet sussurating tender promises to their lover. 

_ You can pretend not to be bothered, but being here rattles you, doesn’t it, Tony? All this plastic and tape covering the scars - trying to hide the blood and the bodies so no one will ever know. But you remember what happened - no matter how deeply you try to bury it. _

Tony would jump at every noise the spaceship made on his way down, and he thought he kept hearing his name. Once he arrived on the lower bridge, he just made a run for it to the other side. 

Of course a huge necromorph was waiting for its moment to shine, a big brute that charged at him. Tony stopped it with his stasis and aimed at its glowing shoulders, shooting until it went down. There was another one a bit further, which he evaded by rolling underneath one of its limbs and shooting at it from below. Then came a horde of smaller ones that tried to stop him. 

At some point he had to improvise and started to levitate discarded appadenges to use as ranged weapons, his ammo running low. Why there were so many lurking on the Icarus was beyond him. He remembered the first time he destroyed the Marker on the ship, the remaining monsters had turned to goo. Perhaps it was the repair crew? 

He arrived at the Gravity Centrifuge wounded, but nothing a med pack couldn’t fix. He took the time to use one before he inspected the room. There was zero gravity here, and he started flying around the centrifuge to repair it. Pieces had detached themselves from it, so it was done in much less time than it took to come here. 

Returning was another matter. He had to use the same halls he previously had, three years ago, and it did no good for his psyche. Tentacles would wrap themselves around him, only for him to realise there was nothing blocking his movements; monsters would jump on him, only to disappear before they came in contact with him, and that constant white noise was slowly driving him crazy.

He called Bucky to update him, but also to distract himself from his own descend into madness.

“Bucky, I got the centrifuge online. I’m heading back to the tram station.”

“Okay. I’ve almost got us disconnected from the mag-rail.” In the background, Tony could hear Hammer say nonsense, almost in an argument with himself. “Keep me posted.”

_ Well, at least I’m not alone going nuts _ , he thought as an imaginary arm shot out from the wall, ghost writings stark blue on the metal. More Hydra cult nonsense his brain remembered fighting against, the voice of Pepper accusing him of being responsible for all of this. 

This was becoming dangerous, he couldn’t recognize what was his mind and what a real threat. He got injured by a lurker for that very reason while he was fighting a group of them, but his stubbornness only made him more determined to see this through. They were almost at the Gov Sec. 

“I’m almost to the Captain’s Nest to activate the tethers,” he told Bucky later, opening a holographic projector. It felt good to see his face.

“Alright. The centrifuge looks functional from here.”

“Great. Let’s hope this works. It’ll be tight, you ready?”

“All set. I’ll wait for your signal.” And Bucky gave him a lazy salute and a small, hopeful smile.

Tony accessed the control computer and activated the tethers.

_ 3, 2, 1… Gravity tethers engaged. _

“It’s working, the tracks are moving,” Bucky said. “Get back here!”

“No, just go. I’ll use one of the escape pods and meet you there. Now go!”

Bucky clearly wanted to argue, as it wasn’t their plan, but he thought better of it. 

Their call was interrupted by Ross. “Stark! You idiot! Those gravity tethers will tear the whole moon apart.”

Well, it was time to go apparently. Just as he was stepping into an escape pod right outside the Captain’s Nest, Pepper appeared before him, more clearly than she ever did.

_ Where are you going, Tony? Do you still think I’m something you can avoid? _

“Just fuck off already, will you?” The pain in his head lanced, but he ignored it, threw himself in the seat. The pod launched.

“Bucky, I’m on my way. Did you make it?”

“We did, but we’re coming in hot.”

Hammer’s voice was close then, and his tone made Tony’s heart stop for a second. “I just need you to feel what I feel, Bucky. I promise it won’t hurt…”

“Hammer! Put down the weapon!”

“Fuck, Hammer, no” Tony screamed, feeling powerless. They should’ve used him as bait a long time ago.

Bucky suddenly started screaming, and the communication was cut once again. 

“Fuck!” And his pod was going to crash, coming too close to the Sprawl. Tony braced himself, and pain exploded as there was impact.

He dreamt. Or at least, he thought he did.

_ Oh, so sorry.  _ Pepper was giggling. She was there, but her body looked distorted, her head at an odd angle.  _ I forgot about the time difference. I can call you back later. _

Tony could only stare at her, his breathing shallow and wet. He tried to speak, but nothing came out.

_ The Icarus is amazing, Tony. It’s a great ship. I'm so lucky to be serving aboard her. _

_ You made me stick with it. _

_ You made me die,  _ she screamed, her face glowing bright from the inside out, and he jerked upwards, gasping. He was outside the escape pod on fire, somewhere close to the Sprawl’s mines. 

He opened a holographic video call with Bucky, and it wasn’t looking pretty. Hammer and him were fighting, Bucky’s cheekbone swollen, and Hammer was getting the upper hand, sitting on Bucky’s chest with one of his knees resting on his arm. Hammer had the laser cutter in his hand.

“Tony!”

“Shhh, it’s gonna be okay, I promise… this won’t hurt a bit,” Hammer said, then started singing as he aimed the gun downwards. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Hammer! Goddamnit!” The call ended as a gunshot resonated.

He had to find them, stop Hammer. He rushed down the hall, killing monsters as he went. A message alerted him of abnormal high seismic activity in all sectors, which meant some equipment and tools might detach and become dangerous. When had Tony ever been careful, anyway.

He descended into the mines, Hammer’s voice coming from somewhere nearby.

“I seeee you!”

“Why did you do it, Hammer?” A good portion of the mines where he was had been destroyed by large rocks and boulders, making it impossible for him to travel through the main route.

“I can’t face it, I thought Bucky could. I had to make him feel. Step 3!”

“What can’t you face? What’s the last step?”

“Her! It’s what they were afraid of, that I’d face her, destroy the Marker. But it’s too much. You have to help. You need to experience. Step 3.”

Hammer’s voice grew thinner, and he was gone. Tony hijacked a door’s control panel to open it, diving deeper and closer to where he hoped Bucky was. If Hammer had killed him, Tony would make sure he faced his rifle. 

Cysts, small necromorphs attached to the surfaces that exploded if approached, were a real pest down here, and Tony took to throw boxes at them instead of wasting ammo. 

He found Hammer in the next area, on the other side of a metal fence.

“There you are, Tony,” Hammer said, grinning. He was holding a severed arm, and he gestured at him with it. The arm had a bandage wrapped around the biceps. “We’ve been waiting for you, now it’s your turn.”

“Oh my God, Bucky.” Tony gasped, staring at the limb. It was still bleeding, the red liquid pooling on the floor. 

From behind Hammer, Bucky crept in, holding a large metal pole with his remaining hand. With a shout, he swiped at Hammer’s head with it, bringing him down.

“You owe me an arm, you bastard!” Bucky shouted at Tony, chest expanding fast, alive. The stump stopped a little below his shoulder and had been quickly wrapped in green, soaked bandages. He’d used the large med pack he’d given him, and Tony thanked all that was good for thinking of giving it to him.

Hammer meant to jump on Bucky, but he evaded and hit him again with the pole. A security gate closed behind the fence, blocking Tony from them, and he hit the fence in frustration. He could hear them arguing on the other side. There had to be a way for him to join them. He hurried down the next corridor, and just as he was about to enter their area, his leg was pulled from under him, and he was dragged forcefully away by a long tentacle. He probably was thrown into all the corners, his body shutting down under such an assault of pain. 

He came back to himself as he was thrown in a space vacuum area, floating away until he regained enough consciousness to activate his boots’ thrusters. A med pack soothed the edge of the pain away, and he looked around for a way to return inside. Well, he killed the monsters who had forced him into an unwanted journey, first. Nests were covering the ship’s surface, and he took care of them too. 

“Bucky lied!” Hammer said on the comms. “He won’t help. But you will, Tony, you’ll see her after Step 3.” 

He cut off to Bucky. “Tony, he’s run off, deeper into the mines.”

“I’ve been pulled outside by a tentacle, but I’m trying to join you. Get somewhere safe.”

“No, no more safe. I’m running after this asshole to kill him once and for all.”

Mining lasers were blocking the entrance, and he had to install thrusters on them to push them away so he could go back. Such a waste of time. 

“Bucky, I’m back inside.”

“Hammer has completely gone mad, and I lost him. I’m not in shape to fight him anymore.” It sounded like it pained Bucky to admit that, and Tony hated himself more for it. “I think he’s coming for you, so be careful. Here’s my location, hurry here.”

“Alright. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

He progressed through the mining halls, forcing open the door, and he wasn’t prepared for Hammer waiting for him on the other side with a screwdriver. 

“There you are!”

“Whoa Hammer, what are you doing?”

He rushed at him and hit his faceplate with the weapon, deactivating his helmet. Tony only had time to raise his arm to stop him from getting at him a second time. 

“You have to face her for me! Tell her I didn’t mean to do it!”

“Hammer, it’s me!”

Tony started to struggle against Hammer to not get stabbed in the eye, jerking his head away.

“Feel her. Tell her.”

Somehow, he got the upper hand, pushing him far away enough to twist his arm and get a hold of the screwdriver.

“Step 3, step 3,” Hammer gritted, almost foaming at the mouth.

Tony turned the screwdriver and stabbed Hammer in the temple with it, then pushed him away with his foot. He fell to his knees, staring up at him with unseeing eyes, his body spasming and finally giving up. 

Tony swayed and brought back his helmet over his face, like a cocoon securing him from the outside world. 

He continued on. 

He couldn’t let this distract him. He didn’t want Hammer to die, he was meant to destroy the Marker with Tony, but he probably had been more exposed to it than Tony had been, had gone through more experiments, and it broke him in the end. It was done, and there was no going back.

_ It’s a shame what happened to Hammer. That’s what happens when you fight it, _ Pepper’s voice told him later, when he was figuring out a way up and out of the mines.

Tony was so done with it, this being who pretended to be one of the best things that happened to him. “Shut the fuck up. The Marker. It was you who made him do it, and you made me kill him, didn’t you?”

_ How is it you still haven’t come to terms with who I am? Who am I, Tony? I will only ask you one more time before the end. Be ready. _

The walls seem to move around him as he walked, but they were made of immovable metal, so it was impossible. He couldn’t ignore it for much longer.

Finally, he stepped in the elevator towards the exit. Necromorphs fell on it as it climbed, nothing he couldn’t handle. At one point he slowed them all down and took his time dismembering every limb he saw, a gruesome way to relieve his stress. He wiped his bloodied glove on his pants and opened the door to the Exploration Main Access.

The horrific version of Pepper was suddenly in his face, spitting at him, and she grabbed him up by the neck using only one hand, shaking him. 

_ Moment of truth, Tony. Who am I? Am I your friend, your lover? The one shred, one light, one bright shining star you clung to in this Universe? Or am I your guilt, crushing the life out of you because you can’t get over the fact that I’m dead? That you feel responsible? Who am I? Why do you keep fighting me? Why can’t you let go? _

And with every sentence, she’d smack him into a wall until he was dizzy from the lack of oxygen and the pain. He scrambled to hold onto her arm and relieve some of the pressure on his neck.

“‘Cause you were my everything. I loved you for so long. And if I let you go, I don’t know what I’d become.”

The glow in Pepper’s face dimmed, the blood vanished. She put him down, and in a moment, she was the Pepper he used to know and love.

“Step four: acceptance,” she said with a small smile. 

He dropped to his knees, coughing and finding his breath back. 

“Now you’re ready to finish this.”

When he looked around, she was gone. He slowly got to his feet and went outside. There was a giant mining drill right there, and as he walked around it, he heard someone cursing.

“Bucky?” He called out. 

“I’m here.” He was placing a power cell into it when Tony finally spotted him. He made his way to him in long strides and wrapped his arms around him, happy to see him. Bucky oofed in surprise but returned the hug, his cold nose pressed under his jaw.

“It’s good to see you.”

“You too, even if you do owe me an arm.”

“I’m so sorry about that. How’s the pain? I have more med packs if you need one.”

“I’m fine, the wound is closed.”

Tony finally let go after another moment, but he didn’t go very far, hissing in discomfort when Bucky stopped him to brush his fingers against his neck that sported purple bruises.

“What happened?”

“Hallucinations are getting stronger, I’m not sure how one was able to strangle me.” 

Bucky gently took Tony’s hand to wrap it around his neck, and his face twitched.

“It matches.”

Tony’s mouth quivered, and he turned away, unable to meet Bucky’s eyes. He didn’t want his pity.

“Let’s just get this over with,” he managed out. “I, uh… Hammer’s dead, too.”

“Well, I’m not sorry about that. So what happens now? I thought we needed him to lead us to the Marker.”

“He couldn’t have. He was running away from his guilt.”

Bucky massaged his left shoulder, staring intently at Tony. A moment passed. “What about you?”

“I’m not running anymore. I know what I have to do.” He gestured at the mine drill, changing the subject. “Well, this drill is a stroke of good luck, finally.”

Tony got the other power cell to get it running, then Bucky climbed in to start it. Some little demon children appeared at the noise, and Tony took care of them before joining him and staying on the roof to clear any monster while Bucky pushed the vehicle forward. He spotted something through the newly made tunnel, and he yelled at Bucky to stop.

“It’s the foundations pylons of the Government Sector,” Bucky explained.

“So how do we get in there?”

Bucky smirked at him. “Straight ahead. We do have a giant drill.”

“You do know I’m on top of this thing, right?”

At least Bucky did warn him. They drove right through the main lobby, and the landing was painful.

“Holy fuck, that hurt.”

“We can compare bruises later. I’m guessing that Marker of yours is behind that huge door over there.” Bucky helped him to his feet, brushing off some dust from his suit.

“Before we go, I want to give you something.” Tony removed his left arm suit. “So, um, I’ve helped design some of the models and I know it’s possible to use it as a prosthetic. Obviously it’s not perfect, and Stark Industries can definitely make you a better one afterwards. They probably already do, but I wouldn’t know since I forgot the last three years and was stuck in a cell getting drugged and having my brain searched through with a little spoon.” He was rambling. “Anyway. It works.”

Bucky took the armour piece, biting on his bottom lip. He cleared his throat. “Install it for me?”

“Of course.” The piece attached itself to his shoulder and weighed almost nothing. He also attached his RIG wrist device they’d recuperated from his lost limb to his right arm. It was a necessity nowadays to have, to be able to monitor one’s own vital signs and access maps, etc. 

Bucky tentatively closed his left fist, moved his fingers. “This is great. Thank you,” he smiled at Tony, who was overwhelmed with the desperate desire to kiss him. 

“No problem. I’ll need to stop quickly by a store, but we’re good to go.”

They separated for Tony to do just that, taking a minute to upgrade his weapons one last time too, and he was coming back when Bucky called him, excitement in his voice.

“Tony, there’s a gunship docked here!”

“What? Is it damaged?”

“Not that I can tell. Do you know what it means? We can make it out of here alive.”

“One of us is. It’s too dangerous for you to stay here, Bucky.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Just get your ass here. I’m starting a system check now.”

Tony was starting to get an idea on how to destroy the Marker, and to know Bucky had a way to get out of here reassured him. He wouldn’t be left alone.

He went into the Launch Control room, the windows showing him the ship Bucky was already installed in, waiting for him. He had to take a moment, knowing that by doing that, he was sealing his own end. 

This was for the best. Despite not wanting to, he started this mess, and he would see it through.

His holographic projector lit up.

“Tony, what are you doing?” But Bucky already knew. Even before Tony had pressed on the panel to start the ship’s engine, he knew. “Don’t you dare, don’t you dare launch this ship!”

Tony ignored him, entered the code to unlock it from its dock. “It’s your best chance, Bucky. You got life support, comms. You’ll be rescued.”

“No no no!”

He didn’t want to look at him and see the disappointment, but it was his last chance to stare at the only good thing this hellhole had brought him. He didn’t realise he was crying until Bucky was crying too, and fuck, how could he be so fierce and beautiful even when he was crying? He’d miss him.

“You bastard…” Bucky croaked, tears spilling down his cheek.

The ship turned around, starting its journey away, to safety. “I need you to be rescued. I couldn’t save Pepper, but I can save you. So, uh… farewell.”

He ended the call. Slid down the wall, and finally broke. He started sobbing hard, his chest heaving. He allowed the pain and sorrow to embrace him, if only for a moment. He was mourning the loss of Bucky, of what could’ve have been between them; his own imminent death, or the stress building up to him. Perhaps he was crying for all of those reasons.

He wiped his face on the hard give of his suit. He let out a deep breath, letting his head rest against the wall.

“Are you ready to talk now?” Pepper’s apparition asked him, seated beside him. When he looked at her, she had the same small, gentle smile the real Pepper used to have.

“Why? So I can let you go too? I can’t do that Pepper. I never wanted to let you go.”

“A lot happened that we never wanted.”

Tony huffed. This was an understatement. 

“Tony… touch me,” she said, showing him her palm. He turned his head away from her.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Tony, please. Make us whole.”

He got to his feet. “I can’t.”

He had to get to the Marker once and for all. He couldn’t find a waypoint for it, but it didn’t matter. It couldn’t be far.

“I don’t know what good star protects you, Stark, but it ends here,” Ross spat, his holographic face appearing too close for comfort. “I have two hundred armed security personnel… Every entrance is covered! Even if you do get in, you won’t get far.”

Tony chuckled, reloading his plasma cutter. “I’ll take that chance.”

He took the elevator back down to the main hall, blasted through the necromorphs that had followed from the giant hole they’d made with the drill. The exploding creatures made for good makeshift bombs, killing a few around them as they went off. He forced the double doors open by hacking the control panel, and they closed behind him once he got inside. Stepping down the stairs, he was faced with a wall of Security Officers in the lobby who started screaming at him once they spotted him. 

He bifurcated into the first room he saw, which was a bathroom, and shot the door access so they couldn’t get in. There wasn’t another door, but he found an air vent in the janitor’s closet. He clunkily crawled inside, his suit not made for narrow spaces. The other side of the vent gave right below the security room, conveniently. If he could deactivate the power, the doors would automatically open, and so the necromorphs could come in. 

He used his stasis to remove the main power cell. Everything went dark. Tony observed from the safety of his room the sighting lasers of the men’s guns shift with their nervousness. 

“We’ve lost power! Somebody get that auxiliary power turned on,” someone shouted.

“Fuck, what the hell was that?” 

“They’re coming in! They’re coming in!”

And then they opened fire, lighting up the monsters coming down on them, seemingly endless in their number.

“You compromised the compound, you idiot!” Ross appeared again, to Tony’s displeasure. “If any of them reach the Marker…” Then his face changed, and he stepped back, scared. “Fall back to the Marker chamber. We have to seal it off.”

So that’s where Ross had been hiding all along, safe in his high security compound. Well, not so safe anymore.

Tony waited a long time in the dark for the guns to stop firing, and when they did, he returned to the lobby. Blood painted the walls, pieces of bodies littered the floor, visceral spread to places Tony chose not to think about the logistics of. There were necromorphs still lurking around, hoping to get their claws into another living being. He cleaned the room, one by one, and then made his way to the Marker chamber, watching for any corpses coming back to life.

Pepper appeared as he was restocking on ammo. “Tony, where are you going?” 

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

“That’s why I’m here, Tony… To show you the way.”

And from her glowing hand, a route appeared, red instead of Tony’s golden, towards the Project Entrance door. Bodies had been dragged away in the small hall, judging by the blood pattern on the white floor. A man had lost his leg and arm, lifeless. There were labs here, subjects experimented on and observed, kept in cages. Gruesome. 

Beyond was another elevator deeper down, and he stepped into a windowed room giving him full view of the Marker.

Finally.

“Holy fuck. I built that?”

He cursed softly, looking up to its curved dual ends, glowing in a green light, then down, where he noticed hundreds of people there. They were… worshipping it.

“Convergence is at hand,” Pepper whispered, right behind him.

A holographic video call of Ross popped up once again. The man was harder to kill than he thought.

“Stark. I knew you were trouble from the start. But they told me you were necessary, that your mind was the purest. I spent years sifting through your demented brain! This isn’t the way it was supposed to happen.”

“How was it supposed to, then?” 

“We had it under control, Stark. This isn’t our fault. We were so close to understanding it.”

“No you weren’t.”

A ripple shook the ground with a horrible sound, and the Marker pulsed golden. 

“What?” Ross was agitated, sweat riveting down his face like a river. “It’s all those bodies you let in here. It’s triggering a Convergence event. But, we never expected this many bodies…”

The Marker pulsed again, stronger. The light blinded Tony. When it dimmed, he saw bodies floating upwards, vacuumed by the relic’s gravity.

“What the fuck is it doing?”

Pepper took his hand. “What it was made to do, Tony. You have to make us whole.”

Slowly, he nodded, followed her into the Project Interface room. The bed had already been built, strongly looking like a MRI machine, but more accommodating and with small lights all around the inside. He approached it and instinctively knew what button to press to activate it.

“The Machine, just like Hammer said. I remember it,” he said, looked at Pepper. She looked real. “The machine activates the parts of our brain where the Marker codes are stored. But how does that threaten the Marker? What were they afraid of?”

“Me. Us. Working together,” she replied, serene.

“Step four.”

“Yes. Are you ready?”

Tony didn’t reply. “This is going to hurt, isn’t it?” He asked instead.

“Yes.” She gestured at the bed. “Step inside.” 

And she faded away. Tony didn’t think this through. He activated the machine and stepped inside. 

_ Step one: Crawl inside. _

A metal device whirred alive above him, and three plates were pressed around his head to keep him in place.

_ Step two: The screws go tight all around. _

And tight, they went in. Tony yelped, but he couldn’t move, so he tightened his fists, his leg jerking as his eyes were held open by speculums. Another device slid down, and out of it came out a long, thin needle.

_ Cross my heart and hope to die… Stick a needle in your eye. _

The laser aimed at his right eye. He gritted his teeth and stared right at it. 

The needle descended, pierced through his iris. The pain shot down his spine, made his nerves feel like they were on fire, before it connected to his retina.

A door opened in his mind and an assault of information came out of it. Knowledge on the Marker, and more importantly, how to destroy it. An end to all this.

It stung when the needle slid out, and he gasped in pain. His eye was filled with blood, tainted tears streaming into his hairline. It burnt. The seat rolled him out of the machine, and he attempted to get up, keeping his injured eye shut. 

“Pepper?” He called out, wiping the blood. The room was glowing in golden hues from the Marker, the room slightly vibrating. He was so dizzy, he gripped the table with both hands and forced himself to breath in and out until the urge to vomit passed.

_ Follow the light, Tony. I’ll be waiting for you at the Marker. _

He used a med pack and sighed as the sting in his face went away, both his eye and the small holes made by the screws healing. It was great timing, because a necromorph barged in the room at that moment. 

With a renewed energy, Tony shot it dead for good, then dashed through the corridor. Some rooms were restricted to employees and needed facial recognition, but considering their corpses littered the rooms, it wasn’t difficult for him to get access.

The necromorphs were everywhere, not surprising with the two hundred people that just were added to their ranks. He bypassed some of them when he could, slowing them with his stasis while he rushed to the next door, and the next, until he entered the Test Area E4. It was the area containing the Marker. A bridge led him to a platform surrounding the relic, where Pepper was waiting for him. Her light blinded him for a second, and he didn’t see Ross with his Javelin gun until it was too late. His shoulder throbbed with pain as a javelin flew into it, the end coming out at the other side. 

Tony yelled, yanked the javelin out. Enough with metal stuff piercing him.

“The research in that Marker is worth every life we just lost,” Ross was yelling. He wasn’t completely human anymore, the Convergence had started to turn his body into a decrepit version of itself, the right side of his face without skin and exposing the muscles underneath, his eye milky white.

The next javelin went through his hand, and he struggled to remove it. He approached Ross, unstable both by the pain and the Marker’s gravity pulling them towards it.

“I won’t let you throw all this away.” Ross raised the gun again, but Tony was ready. He grabbed his arm and twisted it to disarm him. He heard a crack, and the arm bent at an odd angle. Tony turned the gun around and pressed the trigger, impaling Ross through the throat.

Ross gurgled blood, attempted to remove the javelin, but his body gave up. He fell dead on the floor.

_ Come, Tony. _

Tony discarded the gun beside his corpse, turned to Pepper. She was on the platform before him, and when he rested his chest against her stomach, she wrapped her arms around him, whispering soothing words at him. She pressed a kiss in his hair.

“Thank you Tony. Now… time to die.”

“What?!”

She extended her arms, and from her mouth a beam of red light came out, connected Tony to her. Tony felt a pull in his head, and suddenly he was in the middle of a raging storm inside his mind, on a small platform made of the same mineral as the Marker, glowing with pictograms.

“Yours is the last body we need to be reborn! The makers must be absorbed,” a distorted voice resonated around him, and it took him a moment to realise it was the ghost of what Pepper used to be.

The makers were Hammer and him, and he’d killed Hammer. There was only him left. 

“But you said we could destroy it!”

“Not if I consume you first,” she yelled, and he focused on her body apparition.

“I trusted you!” He opened fire on her. “Fuck you… and fuck your Marker.” With every shot he was driving her closer to the edge of the platform, until she exploded into the weirdest monster he’d ever seen, pulsing golden heart exposed. He shot at it too, and he had to do it back and forth, also fighting smaller necromorphs.

After a third time, the heart exploded, and with it the Marker, once and for all. Pictograms gushed from it, swirled around as another shape appeared for a moment. A huge monster, bigger than he’d ever seen, its face dark but for its glowing golden eye staring right down at him. Tentacles spread from it, reaching out infinitely. Terror froze Tony in place. The monster focused the pictograms in a beam that shot right through him, and suddenly, Tony was out of his head, crumbles of the destroyed Marker falling around him.

_ Warning: Reactor containment destabilized. A reactor breach is imminent. Evacuation of all personnel is required. This is not a drill. _

He looked around him, considered looking for an exit. Instead he sat down, exhausted. Let him be buried alive, he only hoped it’d be a quick death. Everything hurt anyway.

_ A reactor breach is now in progress. Evacuate immediately, all personnel, all civilians. This is not a drill. _

“Yeah, I got it the first time,” Tony muttered, massaging his temples. His right eye still stung, especially with the life support failure. His lungs hurt. Maybe one of those dozen of falls had finally got to them. 

Funny how the fake Pepper had played him all along, driving him forward to kill him, and hey, look at him now, he managed to defeat her and the Marker, but he’d still die because of it. It was fitting, one of his creations killing him. And for all these years, DUM-E had tried by giving him smoothies mixed with motor oil.

A large bundle fell in front of him, and he barely budged. It’d missed. 

His holographic projector appeared before him, startling him. “You complete bastard! Was this your great plan? Dump me off and die?” Bucky said, seated in the same gunship Tony had sent him off into.

Shock rendered him speechless for a second. “I told you I’m full of bad ideas, remember? Besides, part of the plan was that you were supposed to leave.”

“Yeah, and none of your plans worked so far, have they? Now, here’s another bad idea: I’m crashing through the roof to get you.” 

Tony started shaking his head. “Why are you doing this?” His life wasn’t worth Bucky’s.

Bucky frowned, his anger lighting him up from the inside. “Because you’re a self-sacrificing idiot and if I still haven’t kissed you, so move your ass!”

Tony’s heart thumped loudly in his ribcage, and he felt something like hope for the first time since he woke up in that cell, stuck in a straightjacket. 

He didn’t try to dissuade him, for they were both as stubborn as the other. 

“Heads up!” The gunship breached through the hull above him, causing gravity to fail in the area. Tony activated his thrusters and flew after the ship, dodging debris on the way. His oxygen tank was depleting rapidly, and just as it was about empty, he reached close enough of the opened door, Bucky extending his hand towards him. He took his hand and was pulled inside, crashing into him.

“Shut the hatch, quick,” Bucky wheezed from under him. He had a suit of his own now, all slick and black, except for his left arm that was still from Tony’s Elite Engineering suit. When did he even have time to get one, anyway?

Tony fumbled to his feet, almost falling outside again before he managed to hang on the frame and punch the button. Just in time to watch the Sprawl completely explode.

“Holy fuck…!”

The ship jerked sideways, and this time Bucky fell into him. Tony ignored the pain and held him, keeping the both of them upright. The ship flew away from the explosion, until there was no more turbulence. He pulled down his helmet, Bucky doing the same, and Tony breathed better at the sight of his gorgeous face. He was okay.

“What happened to your eye?” Bucky softly asked, touching the streak of dried blood on his cheek.

“It’s uh, a long story,” he murmured, unable to not look at Bucky’s lips. They were so inviting, pink and pretty in the middle of that scruff. “Now, I recall you mentioning something about a kiss..?”

Bucky let out a low chuckle, his fingers exploring his temple, down to his neck, light as a whispered promise. “Eager, are we?”

“Fuck yes.” Tony crashed their lips together, pulling him flush against him. He stroked that plump bottom lip with his tongue, and Bucky moaned, sliding his own tongue into Tony’s mouth in a way that made his toes curl in his boots. They were both panting hard when they let go.

“Thank you for coming back for me.”

Bucky flicked his nose, but he was smiling. Tony tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear. “I wasn’t going to leave without you, not when you still owe me an arm. Now, what do you say we get the hell out of here?”

They sat at the pilot seats and flew away, Titan shrinking behind them like a dying star.

They survived. 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](http://cap-sweet-and-salty-sadness.tumblr.com/).


End file.
